from Bob McKenzie of TSN,

Folks, we have ourselves a horse race for No. 1 in the 2017 NHL draft.

And it looks like it's shaping up as a photo finish.

It's Nico versus Nolan, the most legitimate draft battle for No. 1 we've seen since Taylor (Hall) versus Tyler (Seguin) in 2010. It is, of course, also a massive victory for alliteration.

Brandon Wheat King centre Nolan Patrick is No. 1 on TSN's Top 15 rankings, Draft Lottery edition, but only by the slimmest of margins over Swiss centre Nico Hischier of the Halifax Moosehead.

TSN surveys 10 NHL scouts from 10 different teams to get its consensus rankings. There's a preseason ranking in mid-September; a midseason ranking in late January; this ranking ahead of Saturday's NHL draft lottery; and the final ranking in mid-June, just prior to the NHL draft, which is June 23-24 in Chicago.

Patrick was a unanimous 10-out-of-10 No. 1 in the TSN preseason rankings and a decisive eight-out-of-10 No. 1 in TSN's midseason rankings.

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